We love it when you girls make an effort to look the part when attending our castings and we couldn’t help but notice the Summery twist on the basic model uniform while in Manchester last week. Our favourite looks spotted in the Style Studio were florals, pastels and pale denim, all bang on trend for this season and perfectly accessorised with Warehouse key pieces such as a gorgeous fringed bag...ideal for the festival season! Check out these highlights from the Manchester Style Studio and to start working on your Summer Wardrobe and to see the full image gallery go to http://www.warehouse.co.uk/

Elite model, EML 2009 Finalist (AND a native Mancunian!) Rachel shows us how to strike a pose, head to toe in Warehouse Summer must-haves!

cause it looks like I might be standing in the unemployment line come July. I've been teaching ROOTS, a class for kids who've been severely impacted by the prison system (they've been incarcerated and/or have incarcerated parents) for the past four years. I LOVE MY JOB SO MUCH. I teach two classes of ROOTS per day (plus a Study Hall), and the rest of the day have time to do things like develop an engaging curriculum, meet with students who are in trouble, intervention/a little counseling, things like that. It's tough, but it's pretty much a dream for me, as it combines everything I'm passionate about (underserved kids, the prison system, art, education, creative writing, social justice).

But as many of you know, California's in the midst of a budget crisis, and guess what gets cut first? Teachers, social programs, services for marginalized youth. WTF?! Last night I stood with some amazing allies & my die-hard boss & one rockstar student at San Francisco City Hall for five hours, pleading with the Board of Supervisors to reinstate funding for ROOTS at Balboa High School. My students are the most vulnerable, struggling kids in the school . . . and they need us! Cross your fingers that the Mayor's office musters up some empathy and solidarity and gives us the money that we need to make this happen for the kiddos! Otherwise I might be doing one of these two things:

fries

prossy

Ugh. But to change the subject to something much more awesome, check out my piece about preteen crushes on author Nina LaCour's amazing online "journal," Chelsea I Want My Flannel Back. It's called Edward I Want My Dignity Back, and it's an homage to my 7th grade crush . . . Edward Cauthorn. :) If you like Mortified and mix tapes and references to the 90's, Chelsea I Want My Flannel back will be right up your alley. :) Here's a preview:

As you probably already know, all gPodder versions (Linux Desktop, Maemo 4 and Maemo 5) use the same codebase, and as Python is an interpreted language, the choice of which UI to run can be made at run time (you could do this for compiled languages, too, but it's easier for interpreted ones). In current versions of gPodder, this happens by using command-line arguments. gpodder alone will start the Desktop version (which does not work on Maemo for obvious reasons - an "auto-detect" feature might be implemented in the future). On Maemo 5, you will usually want to use gpodder --fremantle, which will start the Maemo 5 UI as you know it (that's also the command that gets executed when gPodder is started from its application icon). On Maemo 4, the command is gpodder --maemo.

If you are a gPodder/Maemo old-timer, you might still remember the "good old days" of two-panel, stylus-based podcast goodness with multiple selections, the funky context menu and the thick toolbar on your N8x0. Ever wondered how that would feel on the N900? Try it out! Simply run gpodder --maemo in X Terminal and give your podcasts a little retro interaction (the database and downloads are the same in both versions and are therefore shared).

Try it out - it might come in handy if you are a stylus cowboy or have really small fingers (or a big N900 and normal-sized fingers...). Also, give the multiple-selection feature in the episode list a try. All you need is gPodder version 2.5, as it contains some compatibility fixes to make the Diablo version not be totally unusable on Fremantle.

Another weekend...another casting for the EML team who will be in Southampton's West Quay centre on Saturday for our Southern England stop on the tour.

Aspiring models will get the chance to get catwalk ready with the help of Toni&Guy and Eylure while the Warehouse Style Studio is the perfect place to practice those model poses and get expert advice from our own Elite models - whether you decide to brave the catwalk or not! For more information about what to expect on the day visit our website and looking forward to meeting you then! http://www.elitemodellook.co.uk/

The usual team will be joined this week by EML World Final runner up Emily Smith and the gorgeous Charlotte Benson who will be on hand with their catwalk tips!

Vodafone, telecom service provider is all geared up to launch ultra cheap mobile phones for Indian mobile phone customers. Vodafone have plans to venture into mobile manufacturing as the company feels that India is a huge market for mobiles. As of now, more than 50% of Indian population doesn't enjoy keeping a mobile handset especially the poor urban and rural people. Consequently, a great business potential exists in the country.

Keeping that as their motivation and business strategy, Vodafone is launch a mobile phone priced at just Rs. 700 mainly targeting the rural clients in the country. Other mobile goliaths like Nokia and India-based Micromax and Fly, have already lined up their ultra-low cost mobiles, however, for the first time a handset will be priced below the Rs. 1,000 mark.

The handset will be launched all across the country and will be easily available at retail outlets and mobile dealers at an affordable price for first time users. The phone will still have all basic features like voice, SMS and phonebook facility, alarm clock, calculator, 2 games and a currency converter. It will be powered by 500mAh battery with good 5 hours of talk time and around 400 hours of standby time.

The most popular mobile maker, Nokia launched a mobile priced at Rs. 1,300, and Vodafone has launched a phone for Rs. 1,200. The UK based telecom service provider will also launch the ultra low cost handsets in markets like Egypt, Turkey and Africa.

The very lovely Kathi Kauder (Contributing Editor) and extremely talented photographer Sabrina Theissen stopped into Elite towers this week to take a look at the board and give us the insider info on on their upcoming projects.

I LOVE YOU is a magazine dedicated to inspiration, and it must be filling the streets with thousands of excited creatives as it just sold out its 3rd issue! And with a with a manifesto that announces 'women are beautiful... life is irregular... fashion is the display of change' we can see why it's the go-to title for in-the-know style seekers.

Look out for the next issue featuring our very own Leah De Wavrin, photographed by Marcus Gaab and styled by Sarah Cobb - sneak previews right here! We're following the blog at http://iloveyoumagazine.blogspot.comand we think you should too.

Micromax Mobiles, India is following footsteps of Nokia and Samsungmobiles and has emerged as the 3rd largest mobile phone vendor in India. Micromax has a market share of 6 percent and is a 1,600-crore mobile brand, which sells around 1 million mobiles every month. It has presence in more than 500 districts through 70,000 retail outlets. This just took them 2 years to accomplish what they accomplished.

Micromax Technologies, was originally a hardware firm since 2000 and to meet the needs of Indian Mobile phone customers, forayed into this segment of mobile manufacturing, as MNC's did not meet out those demands. They employed Nokia and Airtel, helping implement all their products and services, by being their back-end partners.

It is a joint venture of four friends cum business partners, Rajesh Agarwal, Sumeet Arora, Rahul Sharma and Vikas Jain, founders of Micromax Infomatics, the company that owns the Micromax Mobiles.

Micromax gets its handsets manufactured from China to get it done economically. After an array of phones targeted particularly at the rural people, the company made a shift towards selling handsets that come with features appealing to urban consumers such as music phones, qwerty and internet-enabled mobile phones.

The company already has a universal remote control phone, one that can be paired to household appliances like the TV, AC, to act as a remote control for them. But the best one, is the MicromaxGameolution phone, endorsed by bollywood macho man, Akshay Kumar.

Doro is a company that offers a line of mobile phones for seniors. This company offers a good number of models that cater to the need of elderly mobile phone consumers. We have featured several Doro handset on this blog including the Doro PhoneEasy 410, Doro PhoneEasy 335, Doro HandleEasy 330 and the Doro HandlePlus 334 gsm.

Now, let's look at another Doro handset that's specially made for seniors, the PhoneEasy 338 GSM.

The senior-friendly Doro PhoneEasy 338 GSM follows the same formula that made others in its family succesful. It's an easy-to-use and simple handset that one can learn to operate in no time.

This mobile phone also offers a white on black screen with large text and fonts. Another senior friendly feature are the very large rubberized buttons.

Here are the rest of the elderly centric features of this mobile phone for seniors:

3 Big button speed dials A,B,C

High volume hands free loud-speaker

Unlocked for use on any network

rubberized soft touch finish

Large easy to read numbers

Alarm/Panic Button

Easy grip rubberized finish

50 Name and Number Memory

That's if for this quick look n the Doro PhoneEasy 338 GSM. Tune in for more mobile phones for senior citizens from Doro.

Doro is a company that offers a line of mobile phones for seniors. This company offers a good number of models that cater to the need of elderly mobile phone consumers. We have featured several Doro handset on this blog including the Doro PhoneEasy 410, Doro PhoneEasy 335, Doro HandleEasy 330 and the Doro HandlePlus 334 gsm.

Now, let's look at another Doro handset that's specially made for seniors, the PhoneEasy 338 GSM.

The senior-friendly Doro PhoneEasy 338 GSM follows the same formula that made others in its family succesful. It's an easy-to-use and simple handset that one can learn to operate in no time.

This mobile phone also offers a white on black screen with large text and fonts. Another senior friendly feature are the very large rubberized buttons.

Here are the rest of the elderly centric features of this mobile phone for seniors:

3 Big button speed dials A,B,C

High volume hands free loud-speaker

Unlocked for use on any network

rubberized soft touch finish

Large easy to read numbers

Alarm/Panic Button

Easy grip rubberized finish

50 Name and Number Memory

That's if for this quick look n the Doro PhoneEasy 338 GSM. Tune in for more mobile phones for senior citizens from Doro.

These are just a few of the things I have to remind myself of in order not to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge after watching M.I.A's new video Born Free. We need to discuss this . . . have y'all seen it? I'm dying to know what other people think, as I've been obsessing over it since I watched it ( . . . okay, repeatedly) last night.

Typically, I'm a champion of anyone who is willing to talk frankly about the rampant racism and racial profiling in our country and/or confront genocide directly. Or anyone who addresses these things in his or her art. I think it takes a lot of bravery to talk about these toughest issues; issues that many people don't really like to think about. It's much less stressful to think about beagle puppies & the cutest baby ever & martinis, for sure.

M.I.A and director Romain Gavras hold nothing back in their new video. They create a dusty, violent world in which American soldiers wage a war on redheads--a seemingly arbitrary group of people based on a superficial characteristic--and transport them to a concentration-camp like desert, where several of them, including the 9 minute video's "main character," are viciously killed. Don't watch it if you don't want to be disturbed by these images . . . I kind of wanted to bleach my brain when the video ended. And then I watched it again. That's the kind of controversy this video summoned within me.

On one hand, this music video/short film seems over the top, excessively vulgar, and displays all of the wretched violence that so many of us complain exists within modern movies and video games. Upon first watching it, I thought "WTF?! This crosses every line I can think of! I'm preemptively mad at M.I.A for the nightmares I am sure to have tonight!" But then I slept on it, and I woke up this morning thinking, "How is it vulgar to showcase the kinds of violence that currently exist in our world, especially in our country, which has a history of things like the Native American slaughter, slave brutality, and the Japanese American Internment?" I mean seriously, it was only in 1942 that then President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, ordering that all Japanese Americans be taken to internment camps.

So if you've seen the video, please vote! It might help settle me down a bit to hear what other people think:

a. M.I.A is a f'ing warrior! She's amazing for bringing these issues to light. So what if it makes people uncomfortable; we need to fight against racism and genocide!

b. This video is totally grotesque and disturbing and she's deranged for having made it.

c. I can't/don't want to watch it.

d. I'm torn! She's a deranged warrior. ;)

Tell me what you think tell me what you think tell me what you think!!! And then go back and look at the pics of the puppy and baby Suri. :)

Nokia N8 has been officially announced. And it seems that the leaked spec sheet was legit. Still, now that we have official announcement, the final specs, official pics and release videos for Nokia N8 are here.

Even a day hasn’t passed since the scathing first impressions on Nokia N8 flagship, and the details about new handset just keep poring out.

At this rate, Nokia may soon have no chance but go with the official announcement, even if the actual shipping date of Nokia N8 will be delayed until September.

The thing I’m talking about right now is, what seems to be an internal Nokia N8 spec sheet, that has somehow ended up on on one of the russian file download sites.

Nokia N8 today officially emerges into the daylight, stepping out of the shadows equipped with a host of smartphone talents. The first device to be powered by the brand new Symbian^3 platform, the Nokia N8 will launch with a new breed of camera that promises to capture photos and video to rival dedicated point and shoot cameras. Read on to explore Nokia N8’s full list of talents.

The biggest feature on the Nokia N8 is its 12-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash. It features a substantially larger sensor than any ever used in any other Nokia device – even bigger than many found in dedicated cameras. Recently, we caught up with Nokia’s resident camera guru, Damian Dinning, to get the full lowdown on what went into fine-tuning the N8’s camera and video capture skills – you’ll be able to read the full fact-packed story right here on Conversations this week, so stay tuned.

The Nokia N8 also introduces the ability to record high definition videos and edit them with a smart built-in editing suite on the device. Playback quality is just as important, and the 3.5-inch HD capacitive touchscreen is the ideal window for assessing your flicks and footage. There’s also a HDMI connector allowing you to hook the smartphone to your HD TV and share your media with friends and family in superb quality. We wanted to find out more about the benefits of HDMI in the Nokia N8 so we spoke to Paul Wheeler, a software program manager at Nokia, to get the full story – again, be sure to keep an eye out for our full story this later this week.

Pay-as-you go phones or pre-paid handsets appear to be suited for the needs of senior users. These handsets are meant for occasional users and as cheap alternatives for contract mobile phones.

Pay-as-you go phones or pre-paid handsets may not be advanced as the latest phones that one can purchase on contract, they can be ideal for the situation of elderly consumers. These cheap mobile phones for senior citizens are often easy to use and offer reliable service at a very economical price.

Most seniors do use mobile phones regularly so a contract deal with a monthly charge will not fit their lifestyle or fixed income budget. Pre-paid handset provide flexibility and low rates for seniors.

Clearly, the often high cost of post-paid (also known as contract) cell phones is amajor stumbling block for older Americans and the parents of olderchildren. That means prepaid cell phones are going to be the most logicalway for millions of older Americans to live safer.”

Most of the phones I featured in this blog are pre-paid phones. The Jitterbug J is a good example of a prepaid handset that is ideal for seniors. They are bought at a low full price and service depends on the consumer.

There are plenty of pre-paid carriers that offer cheap solutions for the elderly like, Jitterbug, Net10, Tracfone, Cricket, Consumer Cellular, and others...

A typical prepaid-deal includes the full price, an activation cost and service can be for a fixed price and minutes or via prepaid cards.

That's it for this post on pre-paid cell phones for the elderly. Visit often to get more information on services and cell phones for senior citizens.

Pay-as-you go phones or pre-paid handsets appear to be suited for the needs of senior users. These handsets are meant for occasional users and as cheap alternatives for contract mobile phones.

Pay-as-you go phones or pre-paid handsets may not be advanced as the latest phones that one can purchase on contract, they can be ideal for the situation of elderly consumers. These cheap mobile phones for senior citizens are often easy to use and offer reliable service at a very economical price.

Most seniors do use mobile phones regularly so a contract deal with a monthly charge will not fit their lifestyle or fixed income budget. Pre-paid handset provide flexibility and low rates for seniors.

Clearly, the often high cost of post-paid (also known as contract) cell phones is amajor stumbling block for older Americans and the parents of olderchildren. That means prepaid cell phones are going to be the most logicalway for millions of older Americans to live safer.”

Most of the phones I featured in this blog are pre-paid phones. The Jitterbug J is a good example of a prepaid handset that is ideal for seniors. They are bought at a low full price and service depends on the consumer.

There are plenty of pre-paid carriers that offer cheap solutions for the elderly like, Jitterbug, Net10, Tracfone, Cricket, Consumer Cellular, and others...

A typical prepaid-deal includes the full price, an activation cost and service can be for a fixed price and minutes or via prepaid cards.

That's it for this post on pre-paid cell phones for the elderly. Visit often to get more information on services and cell phones for senior citizens.

When the Elite Model Look team stepped off the train in Manchester we were overwhelmed...firstly by the scale of the Trafford Centre (absolute retail HEAVEN) and secondly by the incredibly high standard of potential models that applied over the two day casting. Thanks to Samsung Diva’s, Warehouse style inspiration in the Style Studio, Toni & Guy hair excellence and Eylure lashes, we left Manchester with ten fabulous winners who we literally can’t wait to see at the next stage of the contest!

L-R Olivia, J'nae, Amy, Sarah-Jane, Leah. Charlotte, Claire

Sinead

Lauren and Ashleigh

If you can picture yourself on the EML catwalk or even just fancy getting your photo taken in the Warehouse Style Studio make sure you come along to one of our castings...next stop Southampton! For a full list of casting dates check out our website http://www.elitemodellook.co.uk/

So hard to believe that I started babysitting my sweet little buddy Freeman when he was only 6 weeks old, and now he's almost 2! He can run around and dance and laugh and say things like "Daddy's car" and "I love you Claire!" and "Hi Mama!" Or, most frequently, "More Gaga!" Here he is today watching Lady Gaga's Telephone video on my computer:

He's so delightful, and I love spending my Sundays with my little pal.

Last night, after a languorous day lying about my house, I made a beautiful summer salad (field greens, strawberries, toasted almonds, avocado, pomegranate seeds, light feta cheese, vinaigrette) and took it over to my friend Missy's house, where we sat on her back deck with some white wine and relaxed and chatted for hours. Nothing like girl time after a loooooong week. I'm so grateful for my friends. Speaking of whom, Happy 30th Birthday Tara!

On Friday night, Doro, Anahita, and I went to the Giants game, where we were rewarded for being among the first 20,000 fans into the stadium with these:

Giants snuggies!!! And since my friend Hauna snagged me an Oakland A's snuggie at last week's A's game, I am, as Doro so cleverly puts it, "[my] own Bay Area rivalry." Awesome. Come to my house anytime for some baseball snuggies and beer. There's even a pocket in the front for the remote.

Lastly, what do y'all think of these Prada chandelier shoes? The verdict's still out for me, but I'm leaning toward yesssssss . . .

Happy Sunday everyone . . . I hope it's as gorgeous wherever you are as it is in San Francisco today. ♥

When newly signed Pauline Van der Cruysse made it as models.com new face of the week we couldn’t wait to share with you her effortlessly cool interview...read below! Pauline has an edgy, editorial look that’s sure to translate well to the UK market and we are very excited about having this Belgian beauty in London soon.

Age:19Height:1m80 (5′11″)Place of Origin:Oostende, BelgiumEthnic Origin:BelgianBirthsign:AquariusHow discovered:I was discovered by Tom Van Dorpe while I was shopping in Gent with friendsFavorite things:Shopping, going to the movies, listening to music, fashionFavorite music, band:Rock – Absynthe Minded, Kings of Leon, Arctic MonkeysHobbies:Running, reading, travelling, cookingFavorite piece of clothing:My leather jacket and my All StarsWhat’s your idea of fun?Spending time with my friends and familyFavorite modeling experience so far?A shoot for Weekend Knack with real birdsWhat’s the best thing about your hometown/country?The sea and, of course, the Belgian chocolateFavorite artist (any kind):I don’t really have a favorite artistPlace you would love to visit:New YorkCurrently you’re obsessed with/about:The Secret